From the owners:

Food startups like ours depend on a well-run commercial kitchen in which members can work without breaking the bank. That’s why we built Tastemakers, and we're proud to host over 45 local food entrepreneurs in the kitchen.

The front of the house features a gourmet food hall (now open!) and market highlighting our city's great small and mid-sized food startups. We've added a bar emphasizing craft cocktails and local brews and we're building a neighborhood gathering space where taste testers, the area food lovers, can interact with our taste makers.

We want this to be a place for engagement and education for anyone interested in learning culinary skills or trying out a hot new concept. We offer kitchen tours, cooking classes and chef's table events for the public. More information can be found on our events page.

We hope you'll take a place at our table, in the vibrant Brookland neighborhood. Come see us at 2800 10th St NE, Washington, DC 20017!

-Kirk & Juliann Francis

About the founders

Kirk and Juliann Francis had a food truck that became multiple food trucks and a storefront near the White House. They suddenly realized they were too big for their rented kitchen space, and these growing pains (of the best possible kind) led them to dream up Tastemakers. They built exactly what startups like their Captain Cookie and the Milk Man need: an affordable, high quality and dependable space in which to make great food.

Built to be green

When we built Tastemakers, we didn't just want a modern facility in a beautiful building. From the "cool roof" to the under-slab insulation, every aspect of Tastemakers was engineered to operate with maximum energy efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint for decades to come. In our daily operations, we shrink that footprint even more by donating surplus food, composting organic waste and recycling.